Provincial Caretaker Minister for Social Welfare, Manpower, Labour and Irrigation Bakht Baidar Khan on Tuesday said urgent and effective measures have to be taken to control spread of dreadful disease HIV and Aids, which were fast spreading across the globe.
Addressing a day-long workshop on "Role of Media in Prevention of HIV and Aids" here, the minister said, over 80,000 people have been tested HIV positive in the country and the problem was engulfing the Muslim countries along with non-Muslim states at a fast pace and impressed upon the stakeholders to rise to the occasion and plugged the avenues leading to its spread.
The media role, he maintained was of vital importance in the rapidly changing world and said it has to come forward in spreading the message against this fatal disease in every nook and corner of the province. He said, his services would be available round the clock to the people involved in this noble profession of eradicating HIV and Aids.
However, he urged the stakeholders to reach out to the people in their native languages about the same. He said, majority of people in NWFP were not aware about complication and consequences of this disease and treated it like a routine disease.
Bakht Baidar said, in urban areas people are aware about the disease but in rural areas, they need to work hard to apprise the people about this silent killer. "Take it as Jehad at it requires consolidated and unified efforts to combat it from its roots", he added. He suggested that teachers in schools should also talk about it in their classes and apprised their pupils about this dangerous disease.